Friday: a death, and bike news

A colleague and friend passed yesterday morning after a too-short battle against the East Asian Curse, stomach cancer. James of Cupertino, California was a large man who never dressed up in lycra bike clothes, but friends, family and neighbors could still describe him as an avid cyclist.

His fascination with bikes began in the early 1980s when James worked for frame builder Hiroshi Iimura at Jitensha Studio in Berekely, California. Two years ago, James was super stoked to find a Bridgestone MB-0 with serial number 0054 on Craigslist. This was the same exact bike he bought as a student at Berkeley and sold off during one of his moves. He even had the Jitensha bike shop sticker still on it.

He biked to work most days; stopping to perform trailside repairs on “bike shaped objects” he encountered on the trail. He organized bike rodeos, safety classes, and long bike tours with his son’s scout troop. At the office, he’s the guy who organized last year’s popular bike repair clinics. I’ve asked the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition to nominate James for a posthumous Bike Commuter of the Year for Bike to Work Day coming up in May.

He will be missed. James leaves behind his wife and three children.

More bike news below the photo of James (in the floppy fishing hat) at the office bike repair clinic he organized last year.

Bike Hugger announces their 8th Annnual Mobile Social Ride for South By Southwest in Austin. Byron reports the participants are “like color swatches of all flavors, all demographics,” which sounds like a great formula for fun.

Santa Clara, California VTA Board approves signal priority for the 323 bus on San Carlos / Stevens Creek Boulevard from downtown San Jose to De Anza College in Cupertino. This corridor has the 2nd highest ridership in VTA’s transit system. Signal priority means traffic lights turn green when a 323 bus approaches the intersection, and should shave 10 minutes from the current 45 minutes it takes for the bus to make that trip.

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One comment

Why don’t you distinguish between road biking and mountain biking? That makes no sense. One improves the environment, the other destroys it. It really is that simple. (Of course, I am assuming that the world wasn’t made just for humans.)